With 4:43 on the fourth-quarter clock, Oneida’s senior halfback Steven Barrett paused at the line of scrimmage then burst through a hole, bounced off a linebacker to the edge and surged past a defensive back for a 44-yard carry to bring his team to the six-yard line.

But as New Hartford defenders dragged him down, the ball popped out of Barrett’s hands.

“I don’t know what happened,” Barrett said. “I was running, and all of the sudden it just bounced up. All my concern was to catch it and make sure I still had it.”

Barrett, named the Kickoff Classic game MVP afterwards, secured the bobble and punched it in on the next play to give his team a 26-20 lead with four minutes to go. Oneida held on to win its season-opener in the Carrier Dome over New Hartford. Barrett’s 18 carries for 161 yards and two touchdowns led the way.

After Barrett scored to take the lead, it occurred to Oneida head coach Jason Fuller that the Indians may have left too much time on the clock, but he opted to stay aggressive.

“You’ve got to go out and make plays, no matter how much time is left,” Fuller said. “You’ve got to make plays. You’ve got to block, tackle, not get penalties — we got a lot of those tonight.”

At the time of Barrett’s game-breaking run, the pressure had shifted to the Indians. In 12 minutes, they allowed 13 straight points and saw their 20-7 halftime lead evaporate. To fend off the New Hartford Spartans’ surging offense, Oneida needed to change the pace. They turned to Barrett, who had fresh legs after a light workload in the first half.

“(Getting less touches) just drove me to play harder,” Barrett said.

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Featuring Barrett as an every-down back in the fourth quarter was a spur-of-the-moment decision suggested by an assistant coach, said Fuller, who typically focuses on the defense. It was not part of the initial game plan, but it turned out to be part of the winning strategy.

The first of Barrett’s touchdowns came in the second quarter on a trick double handoff. After the initial exchange led to the right gap, Barrett burst the other direction and received a second handoff. The misdirection gave him a clear path to the left pylon for a 10-yard score. It put Oneida back in the lead after the teams had exchanged first-half scores.

On many of his runs, Barrett displayed patience at the line of scrimmage before letting his size and speed take care of the rest. At one point in the first half, an assistant coach shouted to Barrett between plays to wait, wait and then cut up field. Vision and exploding through the hole in the defense are two skills Barrett has been working on in practice, he said.

Barrett shared the backfield with senior Lukas Albro, who contributed all over the field, throwing a passing touchdown and picking off a throw. In the first half, Albro rotated back and forth between quarterback and running back because the Indians struggled to throw the ball, finishing 9-for-24 as a team.

But once Barrett took over, Albro could play quarterback with no issue. All Albro had to do was turn around and hand Barrett the ball, and he’d do the rest.

“(Barrett) makes it easy for me,” Albro said.

Published on August 31, 2018 at 12:28 am

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman